Investors Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 12,651 put options on the company. This is an increase of 272% compared to the typical volume of 3,400 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other news, EVP Frederic Vanderhaegen sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.47, for a total value of $536,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 160,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,450,980.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 7,577 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.64, for a total transaction of $156,389.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 28,187 shares in the company, valued at $581,779.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Frederic Vanderhaegen sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.47, for a total transaction of $536,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 160,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,450,980.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Avantor by 32.5% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 76,325,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,609,713,000 after acquiring an additional 18,711,696 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Avantor by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,759,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,716,671,000 after buying an additional 439,147 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Avantor by 4.6% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 44,660,832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $917,333,000 after buying an additional 1,984,205 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in Avantor by 21.4% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $588,362,000 after buying an additional 4,948,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in Avantor in the first quarter valued at about $342,202,000. Institutional investors own 89.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on AVTR shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Avantor from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Evercore ISI cut shares of Avantor from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Sunday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Avantor has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.05.

Avantor Stock Up 0.3 %

AVTR stock opened at $19.35 on Friday. Avantor has a 12-month low of $16.63 and a 12-month high of $25.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $13.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.83, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.52.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 5.18% and a return on equity of 15.34%. Avantor’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips.